For a start, head of the family George Lutz claims he was woken up at 3.15am every morning — the same time DeFeo killed.

Eerie goings on only escalated. George, his wife Kathy and sons Daniel and Christopher said they saw slime oozing from walls, would repeatedly see a pig-like creature in the house, and saw someone staring at them from the upstairs window when they were outside.

The alleged haunting got so bad the Lutz’s brought in a priest to bless the house. But he believes he heard a voice telling him to ‘get out!’ and ordered the family not to sleep in one particular room.

Reflection of a house in water in a scene from the film ‘The Amityville Horror’, 1979 (Picture: Getty Images)

The haunting inspires numerous movies Getty Images)

They lasted 28 days before they left High Hopes.

The Lutz’s were open about the paranormal activity in their home and, overnight, it became talk of the community — chatter that would eventually lead to movie deals.

People started to doubt their outlandish stories about levitating beds and a spirit throwing knives, so they took a lie detector test and passed.

However, there’s a twist in this story.

The family was laden with crippling debt. They’d fallen out with their lawyer over financial issues, which prompted him to come forward some years later and claim the three of them had concocted the ghost story to sell to the public. According to him, the whole thing was made up over a bottle of wine one night.

The house has changed hands multiple times and went for $600,000 earlier this year (Picture: Getty Images)

One of the owners changed the address (Picture: Getty Images)

DeFeo was handed six life sentences for murdering his family (Picture: Police handout)

The truth behind the Amityville Horror House may never been known.

Advertisement

Advertisement

DeFeo is currently serving six life sentences and will die in the New York prison he’s being held. He has appeared in multiple documentaries about the killings and subsequent haunting, but continues to change his story.

Daniel Lutz lives in Queens, New York, and claims he still has nightmares about the house to this day.

High Hopes has had four owners since the murders. It went on the market earlier this year and was sold in February for $605,000 — $200,000 less than the asking price.

One of the owners had the address changed from 112 Ocean Ave to 108 Ocean Ave, but it will always be known as America’s most haunted home.